Each year, the Leadership Louisville Center’s Bingham Fellows program looks to the community to understand our greatest challenges and identify what is mission critical to create the kind of place where we all thrive. A topic is selected based on importance, urgency, and opportunity for a group of community leaders to create meaningful positive action.

The topic for the 2026 Bingham Fellows will be:

“Tech-Driven, Human-Centered: Louisville’s Strategy for the AI Age”

Read more about the topic at this link

Bingham Fellows is for experienced leaders who want to grow their impact and build a legacy of leadership within their organization and community.

Ideal candidates are:

• Senior leaders from all sectors, industries, and backgrounds, many of whom have already participated in the Leadership Louisville program or another Leadership Louisville Center cohort program.
• Generally over 35 years old with a strong title and years of experience at their company.
• Demonstrated leadership and community involvement.
• Those ready to lead meaningful change and commit to a year-long, project-based experience with much of their team time taking place outside of class program days.

Each class is thoughtfully designed to include both participants with subject-matter expertise and those bringing fresh eyes and curiosity, because real innovation happens when diverse perspectives come together to tackle complex challenges.

Experiences in the Bingham Fellows program include:

• Interactive Learning Experiences focused on high-impact skills (see below “What leadership capabilities will I gain through this program?”)
• In-depth learning around a critical community issue, explored through expert panels, field trips, and facilitated dialogue with local and national thought leader and subject matter experts related to the annual theme.
• Collaborative team-based project work, where participants apply new tools and mindsets in real time to develop and launch initiatives.
• A mid-year innovation retreat to generate breakthrough project ideas using human-centered design and creative thinking strategies.
• Public presentation and launch of project initiatives, providing visibility, momentum, and the opportunity to influence real change across Louisville.

Bingham Fellows builds advanced leadership capacity through immersive, real-world learning. Participants gain skills that directly impact their effectiveness as leaders, collaborators, and changemakers – within their organizations and in the broader community.

Key learning experiences include:

• Embracing Discomfort: Better Disagreement, Better Outcomes: Navigate tough conversations with clarity and confidence while creating space for honest dialogue across differences. Learn to build a class culture of respectful engagement that transforms conflict into collaboration.
• Insight to Impact: The Innovation Toolkit: Master a structured creative thinking process that turns early ideas into bold initiatives. Work collaboratively to identify opportunity areas and design solutions that create meaningful community change.
• The Communication Advantage: Recognize and adapt to different communication styles to build stronger collaboration through emotional intelligence. Develop the resilience and clarity needed to overcome challenges throughout your project journey.
• Creating Alignment: Building Common Purpose: Learn to unite teams around shared visions while fostering ownership and connection to the work. Develop the resilience and clarity needed to overcome challenges throughout your project journey.
• The Power of Storytelling: Connect, Engage, Persuade: Craft powerful, purpose-driven stories that inspire action and support. Articulate your project’s impact, engage your audience, and prepare for a compelling public launch.

Each Bingham Fellows class includes approximately 45 senior leaders from a wide range of industries, sectors, and backgrounds. Participants are carefully selected to ensure a dynamic mix of perspectives and expertise.

Each cohort is intentionally balanced:

• About half of participants bring fresh eyes –leaders without direct experience in the year’s topic, but with strong curiosity, collaborative skills, and interest in growing their capacity to lead change.

• The other half bring subject-matter insight, offering valuable experience, institutional knowledge, or community ties related to the topic at hand.

This intentional diversity in experience ensures the work benefits from outside-the-box thinking, cross-sector collaboration, and meaningful peer learning – hallmarks of the Bingham Fellows experience.

When employers send leaders to participate in Bingham Fellows, they gain:

• Stronger, More Strategic Leaders: Participants return with enhanced leadership skills that strengthen their ability to lead teams, innovate, navigate complexity, and drive results.
• Community Visibility: Partnering in a community-facing program builds goodwill and reinforces your organization’s role as a civic leader. Project work led by your employee contributes to a stronger, more resilient Louisville.
• Employee Engagement & Retention: Investing in purpose-driven development supports employee satisfaction, fulfillment, and loyalty.
• Cross-Sector Connections: Participants build relationships with leaders from other industries and sectors—opening doors to partnerships and collaborations.

Bingham Fellows participants leave the program with:

• Accelerated Leadership Growth: Build practical, high-value skills in innovation, collaboration, communication, change management, and complex problem-solving.
• Applied Learning: Applied and experiential learning give a chance to develop and test leadership skills in real time—far beyond what a classroom or textbook could provide.
• Expanded Influence: Be recognized as a changemaker with the tools—and the courage—to lead in uncertain and dynamic environments.
• Enduring Relationships: Grow meaningful connections to a cross-sector network of influential leaders, building a network that lasts a lifetime
• Tangible Impact: Develop a deep, systems-level understanding of one of Louisville’s most pressing issues and leave the program having contributed to a project that addresses a real-world challenge and advances the greater good.

Bingham Fellows is an 11-month experience that runs from January through November. Participants are expected to fully engage in both the structured program days and collaborative project work.

The program includes:

• A mandatory opening session in January

• A mandatory two-day retreat in May

• One full-day program session each month (with two in February)

• Time outside of class spent in small groups working on research, collaboration, and project implementation

Participants should review the full program calendar before applying to ensure they can make the commitment. While the schedule is designed to be manageable for senior-level professionals, meaningful participation outside of class is essential to the program’s success and your experience.

Tuition for Bingham Fellows is $5,200, which includes all program materials, facilitation, assessments, meals during program days, and a two-day overnight retreat.

Most participants are sponsored by their employers, who see this as a high-impact investment in leadership development, employee retention, and increased community visibility. The program delivers a strong return by equipping leaders with the skills, relationships, and insight to drive innovation and impact – both inside the organization and across the region.

Limited tuition assistance is available for nonprofit or small business leaders This can be requested when completing the online application.

Our selection committee considers experience, community service, responses to essay questions, and approval from your employer/supervisor. The application consists of three parts:

• Submit your online application.
• Upload a high-quality photo (headshot). Please submit a photo that is at least 1200px wide and at least 200 pixels per inch resolution. The photo may be uploaded at the link at the bottom of this page
• Submit two references. Candidates must submit two references, along with contact information for those references.

Applications are considered complete once all components of the application have been received by the Leadership Louisville Center. A selection committee determines which applicants will be invited to participate in the Bingham Fellows Program.

The Leadership Louisville Center programs have attendance policies designed to give everyone the best possible experience. Exceeding the allowed absences for your program will result in a review of your continued participation by the Leadership Louisville Center Board of Directors. At that point, you must petition the Board to review your status via a letter outlining the reasons for exceeding the allowed absences. The board chair will rule on these matters. Failure to petition the board will result in dismissal.

• Full and partial days are counted. Any hours away from the program day will be tracked and 8 hours will add up to an absence.
• Failure to attend the mandatory sessions in their entirety will result in automatic dismissal from the program and forfeiting of tuition.
• When using an excused absence, please notify the program manager as far in advance as possible. In cases where you cannot provide advanced notice, day-of notification is helpful so staff will know who to expect.
• Consult program calendars for dates of all mandatory events.

BINGHAM FELLOWS ATTENDANCE POLICY

• The opening session of the program in January is mandatory in its entirety.
• The two-day retreat in May is mandatory in its entirety.
• Two excused absences, or equivalent hours, are allowed. A third absence will result in a review of your continued participation by the Leadership Louisville Center Board of Directors.
• If approved to continue after a third absence, a fourth absence would result in automatic dismissal.
• Three consecutive absences will result in automatic dismissal.